Tale of two stretches ends in a bone-crushing ride

The Mohan Nagar-Wazirabad link between Delhi and Ghaziabad has everything an ideal road should not have. There are road dividers that are never repaired, roads that break every monsoon and street lights that never work. As like every other road in Ghaziabad, no traffic policeman is ever seen manning the unruly traffic. The haphazard ways of auto drivers are a perpetual problem.

The Ghaziabad administration had initiated a three-layer road strengthening project worth Rs 46 crore in October 2011, but there’s hardly any visible improvement on the Mohan Nagar-Wazirabad road, which is one of the four prime entry points to Ghaziabad from Delhi.

Officials rest the blame on the state government and say that it is yet to release the installment of Rs 8 crore for the project. The funds are being released in a phased manner.

Meanwhile the rugged four-lane stretch of a road continues to paint an ugly picture of Ghaziabad. “This road sees heavy traffic jams throughout the day. Low-lying stretches of the road are often water-logged after rain,” said Jugal Kishor, a Shalimar Garden resident.

“Driving here is a nightmare. If you head towards Mohan Nagar from Ghaziabad, it will take you at least 20-25 minutes to cross this 5-km stretch. Peak hours are even worse,” said Vikrant Sharma, a Lajpat Nagar resident.

Many allege that the government isn’t interested in repairing the road as the area is home to the middle-class. The affluent classes stay in Vaishali, Kaushambi, Indirapuram and Vasundhara — which see the maximum infrastructure development, they say. They often point at the Loni-Bhopra road as a case in point.

The 9.1-km Loni-Bhopra link road can’t even be called a road. So much so that the locals avoid taking the link altogether and come to Delhi to use the Wazirabad road to Ghaziabad.

Uttar Pradesh PWD officials claimed that 90% of the work on the Wazirabad-Mohan Nagar line is over and 70% work on the Loni-Bhopra stretch has been completed. They said that the remaining work will be expedited soon. “Near Mohan Nagar, 1km of layer work is pending and another part of repairing the Loni-Bhopra road is due. These will be expedited,” said Gyan Gupta, superintending-engineer from UP PWD.